Professional Education (Teaching)

Every metropolitan area and the city at its center has a basic concern with professional education and how it is provided. Southwest Missouri State University asserts that teaching, including the preparation of teachers, is society's most essential profession. It is the university's heritage, and a key element of the university's future. It is the first topic in the worldwide metropolitan conversation, as well as a defining characteristic of SMSU. More rigorous admission standards, coupled with significant curricular revision, will ensure that students graduating from SMSU will continue to be among the best trained teachers in the United States.

Classroom and related learning environments are in a constant state of change. Accordingly, curriculum and pedagogy will regularly be evaluated, validated, and accredited by regional and national agencies; instructional technologies will be mastered by faculty and students alike; and education professionals graduating from SMSU will be lifelong learners equipped to respond to the demands of a rapidly changing world.

The disciplinary substance of teacher training is found in traditional university disciplines. Thus, more than 15 departments in five colleges provide the core substantive content in the preparation of teachers.

Preparation of teachers requires a close working relationship among professional educators who view the formal educational process as a seamless web extending from early childhood education through the doctorate and includes faculty members in all colleges and departments on campus. The university, working cooperatively with school districts, the interested public, and such agencies as the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, will continue to produce teachers, administrators, counselors and other education professionals capable of meeting the growing and increasingly complex challenges of the teaching and learning environment in which they will work. The university plans to offer a doctorate for master teachers in the public schools.

University-wide coordination and interaction is facilitated by the Professional Education Unit, which is made up of some 240 faculty from across the university. Coupled with a fine and caring university faculty, the unit enables SMSU to prepare beginning teachers capable of applying the best knowledge and methods available in designing learning programs for diverse students in rural as well as urban school districts. In addition, the university will continue to serve as a test site for experimental and innovative programs and as a clearinghouse for applied research findings and best practices to offer the finest continuing education for those already in the field.

At Southwest Missouri State University, teaching will remain the essential profession. The university will enter the next century as the recognized state leader in the preparation of highly qualified teachers and education professionals, as a leader in continuing professional development, and as a university known for its applied education research, and innovative programs.

Assets to support the professional education theme

• Beginning with the 1995-96 academic year, SMSU will select only those candidates as prospective teachers who demonstrate the intellectual capacity combined with human relationship skills and the desire necessary to serve students in the modern world. Beginning in the fall of 1995, all professional education candidates will be required to attain a score of 22 (68th percentile) on the enhanced ACT and an equivalent score on the CBASE as established by the Missouri State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
• Plans are in place to require higher scores on exit examinations such as the National Teacher Examination, Professional Knowledge Test, and Specialty Area Tests. Other goals included in Critical Choices are being reviewed for inclusion in future program development for professional educators.
• At SMSU, the education of teachers involves nearly all of the departments of the university working in cooperation with the College of Education. Those departments are involved with teachers who work with students from birth to grade 16. Curricula for elementary, secondary, and special education are being restructured to meet state and national standards for accreditation and to comply with forthcoming certification standards for teachers.
• Special programs and activities at SMSU that support the professional education theme include the following: the Learning Diagnostic Clinic, Project ACCESS (autism program), educational field experiences, continuing education opportunities, the West Plains Campus, the Storefront School, the SMSU/Southwestern Bell Telephone Literacy Center, the Child Development Laboratory, and the Sports Medicine Clinic.
• SMSU's Greenwood Laboratory School is the only K-12 laboratory school in Missouri.
• The Center for Outstanding Schools, housed at Greenwood Laboratory School, brings the entire university together to discuss special outreach projects and professional development related to teacher preparation.
• A fully-equipped interactive video facility has been created at Greenwood Laboratory School.
• Intern and practicum opportunities with the Visually Impaired Preschool Services of Southwest Missouri add to the opportunities.
• SMSU has a strong partnership with the Missouri Alliance for Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education.